Stealing Your Shoulder
by Asanisan
Summary: It's a quiet day with no one around. Sakura spends it reminiscing until Kakashi shows up for a little heart to heart. Kakasaku of a sort . Oneshot.


**Stealing Your Shoulder**

The breeze was blowing softly through the trees and the sky was an everlasting blue. The sun shone mightily on a beautiful day. Next to a log upright in the ground in the middle of a forest, her memories would not leave her alone.

"Sakura."

She turned her head to glance over her shoulder. The rustling bushes parted to reveal a small pug with tired eyes.

"Pakkun," she greeted with a small smile.

There was a howl from the bushes and the sound of a ninken disappearing. With a tail slightly wagging, Pakkun came over to rest his head on her thigh.

"Hey, girlie," he said in his deep, growling voice.

"Hey, dog." She scratched the bridge of his nose and then behind his ears.

"Kakashi's coming," the pug told her, pushing his head closer into her hand. "I thought you might want to know."

"Thank you, Pakkun." Her smile grew bigger as she sincerely thanked the small dog.

"Is everything alright?" he asked with worried eyes. "You don't seem yourself."

"I'm fine," she assured with nonchalance and a bigger smile. "I'm not always a loud, annoying bitch, you know."

"Sure. Whatever," he said to rile her up. His effort proved fruitless as she smiled indulgently down at him. He sighed and sat up with paws on her thigh and eyes seriously staring into hers. "I'm going now. Take care of yourself, girlie."

He disappeared in a show of smoke.

"I always do," she answered to thin air.

"Here you are." Her sensei stepped out into the sunshine, the gray of his hair turning silver. "Tsunade's looking for you."

"So she sent the dogs after me?" she asked sardonically, smiling sweetly at him. "What happened? You just got back from a mission and got suckered in?"

He frowned at her, but she only leaned her head against the tall log as if she did not care.

"That's not fair of you, Sakura." He was angry with her. She saw it in the way he slouched.

"You're right. She probably threatened to give you vacation time."

He was next to her in a flash, an aggressive fist above and to the right of her head. She let the frown find her face and turned her head to show she was ignoring his display of hostility.

"Do you have a problem with me?" he asked menacingly.

"What could I possibly have problem with, oh great and wonderful Copy-nin?" She refused to look at him.

"Stop it with the sarcasm, Sakura." It was a command.

She met his glare in defiance and then turned away again. She knew if she stared for a thousand years, there was nothing for her in those eyes. He left her just like all the others. Hell, he leaves her weekly, sometimes daily. She expects nothing less now.

"I've had it with your attitude," he growled at her, pushing his face into hers. "What is your problem?"

"My problem?" she asked quietly. "You're the one with the problem. It's got pink hair and green eyes and likes to punch holes in the wall and we both know you just want to get rid of it."

"Is that what you think?" he asked incredulously, bending his head back. "Is that really what you think? That you're my problem?"

"I'm annoying aren't I?" she asked darkly, hiding a face burning with a shameful blush behind a wall of hair.

"I never said that, Sakura. Sasuke said that."

"I don't see the difference," she told him caustically.

She heard him breathe in deep before he replied in a low, grave voice.

"I am not Sasuke, Sakura."

"You think the same way," she almost accused.

"That's not true and you know it," he accused.

"Do I? Do I really?"

"I wouldn't be here right now if I thought like Sasuke," he answered quietly.

"You want to know want I do know is true?" she asked off subject. "I knew the moment he left he wasn't coming back. Naruto's wrong. I keep hoping for his sake, but in my heart of hearts I know he's wrong. Sasuke's never coming back. He's too far-gone beyond our grasp."

"Sakura…"

"How did it fall apart so quickly? One instant in time on that hospital roof," she spoke as if in awe. "What happened to us? How did we get so messed up?"

He sighed and leaned his brow of hers.

"It just happens that way. It's no one's fault. It just is."

"Do you think I…if I had done something different, do you think I could have stopped it? If I had-"

"No," he answered without hesitation.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

She looked up with eyes brimming with tears filled with a little hope and too much despair.

"And so now he's gone and I have nothing left to show for it. Not even guilt."

They stared into the other's eyes, neither finding much except their own reflections, the reflection of the one who was left behind.

"Kaka-sensei…"

She reached up into his vest and took a fistful of cloth in hand. With her amazing strength, she pulled him down to sit beside her. She pulled him to her and he could not say why did not pull away, why he wanted to be closer to her in this moment.

"I'm stealing your shoulder for now," she said.

And then she cried, ever so quietly. The only sound was the shudder of her breath. Kakashi held her to him. He didn't try to assuage the tears or stop the sadness. He just held her.

"It's hard," he whispered into her hair. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me. You can have as much of me as you want now."

The old Team 7 training grounds were a peaceful place when no one else was around, a place she just didn't fit into anymore and would like to fill with the sounds of battle if only to remind her of the old days when her precious ones fought and laughed together without a care and tore her world apart again and again with the same reckless abandon. What was left now that they were gone?

The breeze was blowing softly through the trees and the sky was an everlasting blue. The sun shone mightily on a beautiful day. Next to a log upright in the ground in the middle of a forest, her sensei would not leave her alone.

**Author's Note**

This takes place while Naruto is learning sage techniques and Sasuke is burning every bridge back to the people he cares for most. I pity the man who hates so irrevocably.

Anyway, Kakashi and Sakura had to be doing something during all this, so I'm just hoping the two made up. Their relationship certainly has seemed stressed in all of their previous encounters. By the way, this is only a ship if you're looking to go sailing.

Sani


End file.
